By Stephanie Peters
This is the final installment of an ongoing series chronicling the production of Stop Kiss by the Northeastern Theatre Department.
The Studio Theatre was dark Monday night, save for a soft blue light cast on the stage, illuminating the main set of “Stop Kiss” in a purple glow. Gone were the makeshift props, the sawdust lining the floor and any signs that the mauve-colored interior of a New York City apartment, circa 1998, wasn’t actually displaced from someone’s Big Apple digs.
Offstage, in the stadium seating of the audience, a few crew members including director Thomas Keating sat scattered throughout the audience, but otherwise the theater was silent and bare on the eve of opening night.
Backstage, however, it was an entirely different scene.
“People don’t realize how difficult it is to run a show because they don’t see what happens behind the scenes,” said Ilana Guttin, a junior theatre major and “Stop Kiss” assistant manager. “To them, everything just runs smoothly.”
A half hour before the final “Stop Kiss” full dress rehearsal Monday night, Guttin sat backstage in the Studio Theatre’s shop, idly chatting and joking through her headset with fellow crew members, planning themes for each night’s mandatory black dress code.
Meanwhile on the Blackman Auditorium stage, junior theater majors and “Stop Kiss” lead actresses Stacy Payne and Carly Assael performed vocal exercises and recited lines while pacing the stage. Elsewhere, other cast and crew members intermittently broke into song and laughter – occupying time and fending off any last minute nerves.
“Ten minutes ’til show,” said Guttin, as she made the rounds through the backstage area, alerting cast and crew.
Although this was the last chance for actors and crew to perfect their performances, the predominant feelings were not of nervousness or uncertainty Monday night, but anxious excitement.
“I’m wicked excited, I can’t wait for tomorrow night,” Payne said. “I think it’s going to be good in that we’re all really pumped and the energy’s going to be awesome. It’s going to be great.”
Non-Stop Kiss
For Keating, “Stop Kiss” truly came together after Saturday’s grueling 12-hour rehearsal – the first to incorporate every aspect of production – known as “tech.”
“The tech was what I was really nervous about, but now it’s what has brought the show to that next level,” Keating said. “There have been moments when things weren’t perfect, but I think in the last three run-throughs it really gelled together.”
Stage manager AnneMarie Chouinard was also concerned going into Saturday’s tech, her first opportunity to match the production to the acting.
“It was incredibly overwhelming at first because this is the first show that I’ve called that has so many lights and sound,” Chouinard said. “Within the first 45 minutes of tech Saturday I was a big blob — people were talking to me and I didn’t understand it. But now it’s fine … everyone’s cooperating, everyone learned what they’re doing.”
On Monday night the calm demeanor Keating conveyed during the earliest of rehearsals was again on display, as he described the production as “really, really good … very well prepared.”
The one concern both Keating and his actors expressed, how-ever,was audience reception.
“It’ll be great to get an audience in here to see what they think, but I’m a little nervous because you work so hard on something and you want other people to appreciate it,” Assael said. “What you think is funny the audience might not.”
Keating said the audience should come prepared to “laugh, maybe cry, to be moved, and to have a good time. The music is great and [the stage] looks good – the lights and sounds go together well.”
The definition of it
The lights went up on the Studio Theatre stage Monday at 8 p.m., as they will throughout the show’s run, to a late-90s refrain etched in the minds of every American — “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” — playing on Callie’s television.
No, “Stop Kiss” doesn’t rehash the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal, but it does establish a time frame for itself early on. Although the times and the political scenery have changed, the premise of “Stop Kiss” is timeless.
As it is summarized on the “Stop Kiss” script, “After Callie and Sara meet, their fast friendship leads into an unexpected attraction. Their first kiss provokes a violent attack that transforms their lives in a way they could never anticipate.”
Cast and director alike are quick to insist it isn’t a lesbian play, but Keating saisd it is simply a story of “love, deep in the heart.”
“It’s about caring and how a violent act can just change everything, and then what you have to combat to rise above that again,” Keating said.
Despite its serious story line, “Stop Kiss” is not without comic relief. As George, senior theatre major Sean Morris creates many of these moments through physical comedy and his sarcastic personality.
However, the real character development and emotion of the play is found in the interaction between Callie and Sara. As Callie, Payne gracefully transitions between scenes, emotions, and even costumes. However, in Sara, played by Assael, Callie finds the balance, self-assurance and independence lacking in her life.
“Stop Kiss” opened last night at 8 p.m. and will run through Saturday, when the cast will give a matinee performance at 3 p.m. in addition to the evening performance. Tickets cost $10 for Tuesday and Thursday performances and $13 for Friday and Saturday. Northeastern students receive a $2 discount with an ID. Tickets can be purchased at the Northeastern Box Office located in the lobby of Ell Hall and will be sold at the door. However, seating in the Studio Theatre is limited, so advanced ticket purchase is recommended.
